Story of Sabeena

A story told on the fly to a girl who needed a lesson on being neat and tidy.



There was once a girl named Sabeena. Sabeena is six years old.

She loved to play with her friends. Playing is her favorite activity in her whole world.

She never wanted to miss even few minutes of her playing time. So she always ran out to play before her mother could finish doing her hair everyday. Her hair would be messy always. Her room would be untidy always.

One day, a camera man of a shampoo company 'clean clean' came to Sabeena's house. He said he wanted to meet Ms. Sabeena. Sabeena's mother told him she is out playing.

The camera man went to the play area to find Sabeena happily playing with her hair all messy. He told that he wanted to take a picture of her. Sabeena let him take her picture.

Next day, there was Sabeena's picture in the news paper as an advertisement for 'clean' shampoo. Sabeena's friends made fun of her and laughed at her. They all started telling her to use to 'clean' shampoo.

Sabeena was very unhappy. Sabeena's mother told her the importance of being neat and tidy. Sabeena promised her mother that she will keep herself neat and her room tidy from now on.

Since when Sabeena changed herself, her friends stopped making fun of her. After few months, the camera man of 'clean' shampoo company came to their house again. He requested Sabeena and her mother to let him take a picture and this time it is definitely different. Sabeena and her mother agreed reluctantly.

Next day, there is an advertisement of 'clean' shampoo with Sabeena's picture. The advertisement is asking all girls to be as neat as Sabeena and to keep their rooms as tidy as Sabeena's. Sabeena was very happy indeed.

I believe -- kids know how much to eat

Yes, I strongly believe it. If we ensure the right food items available, they eat just as much they want.

I see many mothers feeding aggressively to kids to the point that they throw up everything fed. I feel bad thinking from the kids' perspective. I know how the body feels throwing up after a full forced meal (thanks to morning sickness). Worst of it, the puke stench lasting for the whole day somewhere. So the kids might be going through the same.

If the kid has particularly less appetite, providing rich foods is an option. Packing required nutrition in less amounts. If the kid eats alright, then regular items should be good enough. Providing and most importantly exposing right foods is the best thing we as mothers should be doing.

Challenge is in identifying what kind of an eater is the kid, and then chalking up list of good healthy foods to be provided. This done, I think we need not bother about running behind them for food.

Before going any further, let me affirm that I am not able to follow what I said earlier keenly. It is a tough task, but at the same time I cannot run behind the kid forcing to eat; especially when the kid clearly indicates i-am-not-hungry-anymore.

Hunger is a basic instinct. Babies cry when hungry. Kids also express hunger - probably in different ways. Kids getting unreasonably cranky could actually be a strong indication of wanting some calories. We should respect their hunger and come to believe that they really know how much to eat. 

Plus, all this is not my wisdom. There's a famous saying in Andhra, kids even if they selectively pick up seven grains of rice and eat it themselves, it is equivalent to seven elephants strength. I sign off with this old wisdom.

Paper house - craft at home

The Wise Blog: Matthieu Ricard

http://www.matthieuricard.org/en/index.php/blog/

Rich in wisdom and so essential for a happy content life.

Kindergarten ideas from Hinduism

Before the East India Company entered India, I wonder what used to be the various activities (predominantly at home) for toddlers and kids below 7 years of age. The activities must have been daily rituals either religious or community-driven or part of festivities, given the large number of festivals or important thithis (days) in one year.

In traditional Andhra culture, these could have been some activities for sure:

1. Music (as cradle rhymes, short songs of nature, land)
2. Poetry recital (introduction to literature, existence of a few 'satakam' for kids - 100 poem set)
3. Moral science - imbibed in the poem sets
4. Mythological stories
5. Panchatantra

(This post is under-research, as and when I find something more, it will be appended).

Food for skin!

A few months ago, I was listening to an interview of a Food Administration Official in the NPR FM channel. I do not remember the name of the official though. The interview was about a book that she wrote recently about why the number of incidences of cancer are on the increase. One thing that caught my interest was about the skin-care.

(As mentioned in the interview): Skin is a very large organ that is exposed all the time. Hence we need to take really good care of it. Skin absorbs whatever is applied on it and these enter the body. So, what we apply on the skin should be edible practically.

This made me wonder -- in that case, all the skin-related products that we use, firstly should not have the warning tag 'For External Use only'. Ayurveda-inspired products like Himalaya have the same tag. Even products like chap-sticks and lip-sticks, alas! I wonder how these companies that make these products think the substance is far away from getting into the mouth!

All these thoughts brought back my childhood memories, when my mother and my grand-mother would constantly remind me almost everyday to do an oil-bath. Oil-bath is an elaborate and healthy process (it used to be a daily ritual, but no longer). An edible oil like sesame oil or olive oil is used to oil the skin well and then one has to wait for a while for the oil to soak into the skin. A soft paste is prepared with lentil's flour (usually moong dal, chana dal) and milk. This paste is applied on the skin and the scrubbing process starts. After one feels the scrubbing has been good, it is time to rinse. Now if I think, all the substances we used were edible - indicating that this is the best bath product for the skin and hence, for our body too. Forget about all the 'complexion-care', 'dry-skin care', 'even-tone care', 'anti-aging care' skin products - one run through the ingredients present in the soap - puts in a lot of doubts in my mind, like is sodium laureate edible?

Recently, a pediatrician also suggested the same, when I was raising concerns over kid's skin dryness which I observed usually during seasonal and climate changes (this is called acclimatization) and asked which moisturizers to use. This is what he said - 'you should be having sesame oil at home, the one we use for pickles. Apply that before and after bath. And for the bath, use stone-pressed soft moong dal flour'. And its been a week now and the skin has improved and it could withstand the effect of climate changes. Do I need any other testimony? I don't think so!

What our ancestors followed, does seem to be a very healthy thing! After all these inventions and research in skin-care products, I think we will and we have to get back to lentil's flour and edible-oil based bath products. And for such products, I shall look out.

p.s. Well, it will be amusing when skin products have the tags like -

'Gives better or similar results when consumed'!

'Can be used as a substitute for a snack, 0% Trans fat'

[Any such interesting one-liners are welcome!]

Interview of Carol Thompson Eidt: Good points

Read the article here:

http://anitaborg.org/news/archive/senior-technical-woman-profile-carol-thompson-eidt-common-language-runtime-microsoft/

Points to note:

I just loved some of the points she makes like
1. the innumerable problems to solve,
2. endless possibilities to get a solution and innovate
3. being an expert in one's field and getting excited to work on it
4. family/work balance and
5. finally, the important thing is CONFIDENCE. I am amazed when she tells it is still one of her challenge even now. I cannot help but quote her very own words - very inspiring!!!

"""
My greatest challenge has always been confidence, and it’s an ongoing struggle. I have to work at trusting my own competence (rather than assuming that if someone disagrees with me, they’re probably right). I have to pump myself up in preparation for presentations or controversial discussions.
"""

Something for all the career woman to keep in mind and work towards.